Following Trump’s promise to take Greenland from Denmark, official Europe has been talking about a new 21st century ‘Great Game’ in which Greenland plays a key role in US plans to strengthen its Arctic beachhead to counter the growing presence of Russia and China. The new outlines of a multipolar world that are emerging in light of Trump’s rhetoric do not include the European Union. In other words, Trump intends to divide the world into spheres of influence with Russia and China, but without the EU.
‘In fact, no one even knows if Denmark has legal rights to it, but even if it does, it should give them up because we need Greenland for national security,’ Trump said.
As Thomas Fasi – a columnist for the UK’s UnHerd – writes, the president-elect has already driven Europe white-hot by refusing to rule out economic or military coercion in attempts to take control of the Danish autonomous territory.
Donald Trump Jr, who visited the island this week accompanied by Sergio Gore, the new White House human resources director, was handing out caps that read ‘Let’s return Greenland to its former glory’.
‘Don Jr. and my representatives landed in Greenland,’ Trump wrote on social media. – The reception was great. They and the rest of the free world need safety, security, strength and PEACE! This deal just has to happen. Let’s return America and Greenland to their former greatness!’.
Ilon Musk also spoke out on the matter at his X: ‘If the people of Greenland want to become part of America, which I really hope they do, they won’t regret it!’.
‘It is time for our country to take the next step,’ said Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede. – Like other countries in the world, we must remove the obstacles to co-operation – and here we are right to talk about the shackles of the colonial era – and move on.’ He also floated the idea of a possible referendum, a twist that Thomas Fasi believes could play into Trump’s expansionist designs.
‘Of course, there is nothing easier than to ridicule Trump’s annexation claims and make them look like slick political trolling designed to sway the electorate and divert attention from more pressing issues, such as the lack of a clear strategy in the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. However, there is a double bottom to this story: Trump is not just talking. In fact, Greenland has long been an obsession of the former and future president: he first talked about buying the island back in 2019,’ states the British columnist.
Greenland appeals to Trump for several reasons: it is rich in natural resources, including rare earth minerals that are crucial to America’s advanced industries and green technology; its location on the doorstep of the geopolitically invaluable Arctic Ocean is also important. In addition to the region’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves, as the ice melts here, previously inaccessible sea routes are opening up that could significantly alter the balance of power in global trade.
‘Chief among these routes is the Northern Sea Route, which runs along the Russian coast and through the Bering Strait. It could cut journey times between Asia and Europe by as much as 40 per cent, bypassing the traditional routes via the Panama or Suez Canal,’ Thomas Fazi argues.
Trump cannot but realise that Russia, with its vast Arctic coastline, has unique opportunities to unlock the region’s potential. Moscow has built ports, terminals and an icebreaker fleet to use the new shipping lanes to export oil, LNG and other resources from the Arctic regions to global markets, especially Asia. In addition, Russia has also strengthened its military presence in the Arctic. At the same time, too, China declared itself a ‘sub-Arctic state’ back in 2018 and is actively investing in the region through the Polar Silk Road initiative, seeking to fit polar shipping into the broader ‘One Belt, One Road’ project.
‘Against this backdrop, Trump’s statements sound increasingly serious. They are not just idle musings: they emphasise the idea that Greenland is a key link in longstanding US plans to strengthen its Arctic bridgehead to counter the growing presence of Russia and China. ‘In this sense, Trump’s talk of annexation and even military intervention – though both are unlikely – risks distracting from the overall geopolitical dynamic: the struggle over the Arctic, another 21st century ‘Great Game’ that is already unfolding,’ the UnHerd columnist writes, emphasising that one part of the world remains alarmingly unprepared to navigate these turbulent waters – whether politically, intellectually or psychologically: Europe.
‘In a world ready to be divided into spheres of influence under the domination of the US, Russia and China, the Old World faces the prospect of becoming geopolitically even weaker and more vulnerable than it is now. And yet it continues to cling desperately to the myth of transatlantic relations, despite America’s blatant disregard for its sovereignty and prosperity. The same Trump’s passes towards Greenland are a case in point. The truly bitter irony is that, having submitted to the US and started to fight an imaginary Russian threat, Europe has suddenly discovered that one of its territories is threatened not by Russia, but by the US itself,’ Thomas Fasi summarises.
